Author: José Maria Chapina Alcazar *

Source: DCI, 24/04/2009

Measures that have been announced by the government, such as the suspension of taxes in specific segments, highlight an old and inexorable Brazilian reality: our tax burden is even one of the major obstacles to development, as it is in its temporary reduction that we are now betting to cut the bonds of an economy whose priority is to continue to grow.

 

The decrease in the Tax on Industrialized Products (IPI) in the automotive market and the housing package, which determines the fall in federal taxes on the materials used in the construction of popular houses, are clear examples of this, but, in addition to applause, these novelties offer good reasons for reflection, however praiseworthy and well-intentioned.

 

First, the current problematic scenario of the international economy would be unnecessary to trigger them, since it is not today that everyone knows how much is paid in taxes and contributions in this country, without due consideration in the form of elementary services, and in the face of expenses not always consistent.

 

Added to this, as a worrying indication of the temporary nature of these measures, the fact that the vast majority have a certain date to end, which exposes their palliative role, in view of the old and always urgent need for a wide and true reform in areas vital aspects of national life.

 

Equally desirable and independent of the international situation, even if indirectly affected by it, there remains an urgent review of the way taxes and contributions are collected in all spheres of Brazilian tax collection.

 

There are many examples of possible solutions in this field, much of which has long been claimed by entities such as ours - the Union of Accounting and Advisory Services Companies in the State of São Paulo (Sescon-SP) -, which represent national entrepreneurship, in the constant search for better conditions for those who create jobs and make Brazil respected for the excellence of its products and services.

 

An emblematic case in this field involves, in the State of São Paulo, the desirable extension of the period for collection of the Tax on Operations related to the Circulation of Goods and Provision of Interstate and Intermunicipal Transport and Communication Services (ICMS) levied on goods inventories prior to the validity of the Tax Substitution, a regime in itself onerous, insofar as it concentrates the responsibility of collecting the tax in the first link of the production chain, based on at least questionable estimates. Since the beginning of last year, the São Paulo government has increased the list of segments subject to Tax Substitution, establishing different payment periods for the tax related to existing stocks, that is, everything that was stored before the product in question was reached by the new system.

 

Due to the same economic crisis that motivated the tax measures adopted at the federal level, the São Paulo taxpayer needs a reasonable grace period and special payment conditions that allow him to adapt to the new reality, under pain of further aggravating the financial impact that suffers when collecting a tax whose generating revenue takes, on average, forty days to enter its cash.

 

Instead of keeping the consumption level stable for a certain period, or in specific niches of activity, as it is now the case, profound structural changes in the tax, labor and social security fields, among many others, would bring to light a really reliable business environment, allowing the productive activity to breathe as a whole in our country.

 

These would be perennial reforms, of internal relevance as blatant as the crisis surrounding the planet, and fundamental to the future of our economy, certainly with long-term effects unattainable for the recently announced circumstantial decisions -repeat-, however that they are welcome in view of the current situation.

 

However, one must not lose sight of the fact that more important than obtaining bombastic and immediate results is the pressing need to transform Brazil from the provisional into the Country of the lasting, especially when it comes to creating an environment in which its companies and workers can give the best of yourself, also receiving the best in return.

 

 

* José Maria Chapina Alcazar is an accounting entrepreneur and president of the Union of Accounting Service Companies and Advisory, Expertise, Information and Research Companies in the State of São Paulo - SESCON-SP and of the Association of Accounting Services Companies of the State of São Paulo - AESCON-SP